Diminutive of James, from Hebrew Ya'akov meaning supplanter or one who follows.
Jimmie is an affectionate spelling variant of Jimmy, itself a diminutive of James — one of the great patriarchal names of the Western world. James descends through Latin *Jacomus* from the Hebrew *Ya'akov* (Jacob), meaning "he who supplants" or, in the more poetic rendering, "holder of the heel," a reference to the biblical story of Jacob gripping his twin brother Esau's heel at birth. The name traveled through centuries of Christian tradition, carried by two of Jesus's apostles, and eventually proliferated across every corner of the English-speaking world.
The Jimmie spelling carries a particular American resonance, associated with the rough-edged warmth of the early twentieth century American South and the working-class vitality of that era. Jimmie Rodgers — the "Father of Country Music" — gave the spelling its most iconic bearer, a blue-yodeling railroad man from Mississippi whose recordings in the late 1920s helped invent American popular music. Jimmie Dale Gilmore, the Texas singer-songwriter, and Jimmie Johnson, the NASCAR legend with seven championships, both kept the variant alive in different arenas of American culture.
There is also the tragic echo of Jimi Hendrix, whose full given name was James Marshall Hendrix. As a standalone name rather than a nickname, Jimmie peaked in American usage in the 1930s and 40s, when it sat comfortably alongside Ronnie, Donnie, and Frankie — names that wore their friendliness openly. Today it reads as vintage, evoking a pre-ironic Americana that has come back into quiet fashion. For parents drawn to old-timey names with real historical texture, Jimmie is a name with deep roots and genuine soul.